The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-04-29
WESTMINSTER A1eLY.

WESTMINSTER ABekY.
Oliver Wendell Holmes ImpresesG NJ o
EnEland's Most Notable Structure.
think no part of the Abbey is visited
with so much interest as Poets Corner.
We are all Familiarity acquainted with
it beforehand. We are all ready for %
rare Ben Johnsonr' as we stand over
the place where he was planted stand
ing upright, as if he had been dropped
into n post-hole. We remember too
well the foolish and flippant mockery
of Gays '.Life is a Jest" If were .
dean of the cathedral. I should be
tempted to alter the j to q g. Then we
could read it without contempt; for
life Is Sest, an achievement-sor al
ways ought to be. Westminster Abbey
is too crowded with monuments to the
illustriOus dead and those who have
been considered so in their day to pro-
duce any other than a confused inn
preston. When We visit the tomb Of
Napoleon ut the Invalides. no side
lights interfere with the view before us
in the field of mental vision. We see
the Emperor; Marengo. Austerlitz.
Waterloo, Saint Helena. come before us
with him as their central figure. So at
Stratford-the ClOptons and the John a
COmbes, with all their memorials, can
not make us lift our eyes from the stone
which covers the dust that once
breathed and walked the streets of
Stratford as Shakespeare.
All, but here is one marble countc-
nance that know full well, and knew
for many year in the flesh! Is there
an American who sees the bust of Long
fellow among the efligies of the great
authors of England without feeling a
thrill of pleasure at recognizing the
features of his native fellow-cOuntry-
man in the Vahalla of ancestral fellow.
countrymen? There are many memo
rails in Poets Corner and elsewhere in
the Abbey which could be better spared
than that. Too many that were placed
there as luminaries have become con-
spicious by their obscurity in the midst
of that illustriOus company. On the
whole. the Abbey produces distinct
sense of being OvercrOwded. 1t APP
pears too much like a lapidary's store
room. Look up at the lofty roof. which
we willingly pardon for shutting out
the heaven above us-at least in an
average London day; look down at the
floor, and think of what precious relies
it covers; but do not look around you
with the hope of getting any clear, con-
ccntrated, satisfying effect from this
great museum of gigantic funereal bric-
abrac. Pardon me, shades of the mighty
dead! Il had something Of this feeling, but
at another hour might perhaps beover-
come by emotion, and weep, as my fell
low-cOuntryman did at the grave of the
earliest of his ancestors. IshOuld love
myself better in that respect than do
in this cold-bloOded criticism; but it
suggested itself, and as no fattery can
soothe, 80 no censurc can wound, 1.-THE
dull. cold ear of death"
Of course we saw all the sights Of the
Abbey in hurried way, yet with such
a guide and expositor as Archdeacon
Farrar our two hours visit was worth
whole day with an undiscriminating
vcrger. who recites his lesson by rote,
and takes the life ont of the little mob
that follows him round by emphasizing
the details of his lesson Wsltn ..Patience
on monument" seems to be the suf-
fercr, who knows what he wants and
what he does not want, the nearest en-
blem of himself he can think of.
Amidst all the imposing recollectiOns
of the ancient editice, one impressed
me in the inverse ratio of its imports
ance. The Archdeaeon pointed out
the little holes in the stones, i'm one
place, where the boys of the choir used
to play marbles before America was
discovered. probably-centurics be-
fore, it may be. 1t is strangely inn
pressive glimpse of u living past. like
the grGt:ti of Pompeii. l find it is often
the accident rather than the essential
which fixes my attention and takes
hold of my memory. This is a tend
cncy of which suppose ought to be
ashamed. if we have any right to lie
ashamed of those idiosyncra lies which
are ordered for us. 1t is the same tend
cncy which often leads us to prefer tire
picturesque to the beautiful. MIR. Gil
pin liked the donkey in forest land
scape better than the horse. a touch
of imperfection interferes with the
beauty of an object and lowers its level
to that of the picturesque. The acci-
dent of the holes in the stone of the no.
bic building, for the boys to CLAY mar
bles with. makes me boy again and
at home with them. after looking with
awe upon the statue OF Newton. and
turning with a shuddcr from the CHASTITY
monument of Mrs. Nightingale.-Olirer
Wendell Holmes, in atlantic.
horeo~a< nf Tho Modoen NouAl